[dtengineering]

This suddenly has me getting much more interested in FTC, but I'm curious how it will affect teams that run out of "the physics lab" rather than the shop class.

One of the great things about FTC (and now VEX) is that you could build a robot on the kitchen table that could go head to head with one built in a machine shop. (Okay, you might have to scoot out the back yard and use a hack saw and file every now and then, but you didn't need more than about $10.00 worth of hand tools to compete on an even keel with everyone.)

While I await seeing what the limitations on the use of polycarbonate and aluminum sheet are (if any), I can certainly see how teams with access to shears, box and pan brakes, drill presses, english wheels, vaccuum formers, water jet cutters, TIG welders, etc. would have significant opportunities to advance their design over their less well-equipped competitors/colleagues.

Given that we make our FTC bots in the same shops we make our FRC bot, this design flexibilty offers some definite advantages to my students... but I wonder if we might loose some of the teams running out of the Physics labs and home schools. (My "completely unbiased" answer is those kids need to take some shop classes anyways, but I know they aren't always available...)

Another factor is that having specifically crafted components will reduce the design flexibility of the robot... with generic parts it was always possible to pull a robot apart and re-build or replace a component in fairly short order. With custom-built parts, you have a much greater committment to your design whether it is working well or not... mid-competition upgrades are far more difficult. Sure it happens in FRC all the time... but over a much longer period of time. On the other hand, I always rather disliked seeing students buy something that they could build.

I also wonder whether this was an intentionally planned addition to the rule book or an afterthought to compensate for a lack of available parts... it will be interesting to see what, exactly, the rules say. In any case it should allow for some creative applications of the sheet metal functions of 3D cadd programs... and some pretty cool looking robots.

As far as I am concerned this is even a more interesting and signficant announcement than the change in the controller. Software types may choose to disagree on that, but breaking away from 100% off-the-shelf components is undeniably a significant change.

Jason